A PROJECT REPORT ON

India Vision : 2020

SUBMITTED TO

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

BY

AMIT ASHOK DOSHI
T. Y. B.M.S.

YEAR 2005-2006

THROUGH

TOLANI COLLEGE OF COMMERCE
ANDHERI (EAST), MUMBAI – 400 093

CERTIFICATE

I, Dr. A. A. Rashid, hereby certify that Mr. Amit Doshi of Tolani College of Commerce, T.Y. B.M.S. (Semester V) has completed his project titled India Vision: 2020 in the academic year 2005-2006. The information submitted herein is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

Dr. A. A. Rashid (Project Guide)

Dr. Sheela Purohit (Principal)

DECLARATION

I, Amit Doshi, of Tolani College of Commerce, T.Y. B.M.S. (Semester V) hereby declare that I have completed my project titled India Vision: 2020 in the academic year 2005-2006. The information submitted herein is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

Place: MUMBAI Date:

Amit Doshi

Acknowledgement
At the outset I take the privilege to convey my gratitude to those who have co-operated, supported, helped and suggested me to accomplish the project work. This project work bears imprint, of many persons who are either directly or indirectly involved in the completion of it.

I also thank the almighty god to give me courage and patience during the compilation of the project.

I am also desirous of placing on record profound indebtness to my guide Dr. A. A. Rashid, Tolani College of Commerce, Andheri for the valuable advice, guidance, precious time and support that he offered.

Executive Summary
Vision of India’s future should be both comprehensive and harmonious. It must encompass all the myriad aspects that constitute the life of the country and its people. It must balance and synthesize all the divergent views and forces that compete in the pursuit of self-fulfillment. It must be based on an objective assessment of facts and a realistic appraisal of possibilities, yet it must rise beyond the limitations of past trends, immediate preoccupations and pressing challenges to perceive the emerging opportunities and concealed potentials.

Most of all, vision of India’s future should serve to awaken in all of us a greater awareness of cultural and spiritual strengths - which formed the bedrock of past achievements and should form the foundation of future accomplishments. Some of traditions must change, but knowledge, in essence, is greatest endowment. The vision should awaken in us an unswerving confidence in ourselves, a complete reliance on our own capacity as a nation and an unshakeable determination to realise full potential.

Vision must emerge as a living and dynamic reality in the minds and hearts of the people. Vision of India 2020 may not fulfill all these criteria to our full satisfaction, but it can serve as a useful starting point and foundation for contemplating future possibilities and our destiny as a nation. It can serve to indicate the broad lines of policy and strategy by which India can emerge as a far stronger, more prosperous and more equitable nation in the coming years.

This vision statement is neither a prediction of what will actually occur, nor simply a wish list of desirable but unattainable ends. Rather, it is a statement of what we believe is possible for our nation to achieve, provided we are able to fully mobilise all the available resources – human, organizational, technological and financial – generate the requisite will and make the required effort.

2

An essential requirement for envisioning India’s future in the new century is to recognize that the parameters which determine national development have changed in recent years and will change further in future. This will open up greater possibilities than ever before.

A powerful set of catalytic forces is accelerating the speed of social change throughout the world. They include a rapid rise in levels of education, high rates of technological innovation and application, ever faster and cheaper communication that dissolves physical and social barriers both within countries and internationally, greater availability and easier access to information, and the further opening up of global markets. These trends are representative of a relative shift in the engines that drive development from manufacturing to the services sector and from capital resources to human and knowledge resources. Technology, organisation, information, education and productive skills will, therefore, play a critically decisive role in governing the future course of development.

The growing influence of these factors, acting on the foundation of India’s increasingly dynamic and vibrant economic base, lend credence to the view that India can achieve and sustain higher than historical rates of economic growth in the coming decades. The compounded effect of achieving the targeted annual GDP growth rate of 8.5 to 9 per cent over the next 20 years would result in a quadrupling of the real per capita income and almost eliminating the percentage of Indians living below the poverty line. This will raise India's rank from around 11th today to 4th from the top in 2020 among 207 countries given in the World Development Report in terms of GDP. This will mean, India will move from a low income country to an upper middle income country.

This is a very real possibility for us to seize upon and realise. What will India be like 20 years from now?

3

Vision of India in 2020 is of a nation bustling with energy, entrepreneurship and innovation. The country’s people will be better fed, dressed and housed, taller and healthier, more educated and longer living than any generation in the country’s long history. India will be much more integrated with the global economy and will be a major player in terms of trade, technology and investment. Rising levels of education, employment and incomes will help stabilise India’s internal security and social environment. A united and prosperous India will be far less vulnerable to external security threats.

A more prosperous India in 2020 will be characterised by a better educated electorate and more transparent, accountable, efficient and decentralised government. Realisation of this vision will depend on many things, but most importantly on our self confidence, self-reliance and determination to make it a reality. For that, the first need is to abandon the sense of dependence and the urge to imitate other nations blindly. We need also to rediscover the well-springs of our own native strength, the rich endowments of our shared culture and spiritual tradition.

We must reawaken the dormant Spirit of India.

4

Introduction
The second decade of the 21st Century lies behind a barrier that is impenetrable by statistical probes. Looking backwards, we become aware of how limited our horizon of certitude really is. In the mid-1960s, when India was confronted with the threat of widespread famine and was perennially dependent on foreign food aid to feed its people, who among the most visionary of us could have imagined that within such a short period food grain production would double and the country would be having significant surpluses? Who could have anticipated the sheer speed of Japan's rise in the 1970s and 1980s or its equally surprising stagnation during the 1990s? In 1980, who could anticipate the Personal Computers revolution that was to follow just two years later? In 1983, when India's total software exports were only $12 million, who could imagine that they would multiply 500 times in 17 years and the country would be recognised around the world as a major IT power? In early 1989, who could foresee that the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, the break up of the USSR and the entire Eastern Bloc would all occur within 24 months? Even a visionary like Microsoft's founder Bill Gates admits that he was unable to grasp the enormous potential of the Internet until it had already spawned a global revolution. The growth rate of our cities, which mirrors global trends of urbanization, is 25 per cent lower today than what we predicted just five years ago.

Planning and prediction over such long time horizons as two decades are beyond our capacity, but we do possess a still greater human endowment that can enable us to envision the real possibilities and to perceive the necessary actions we need to take to convert those possibilities into realities.

5

Call it vision or imagination, or aspiration, or anything else, it is this faculty that most differentiates us from other species and constantly drives the evolutionary progress of humanity. Vision requires a subtle blend of humility and the courage to dare.

For a vision to be realisable, it must bring into view the untapped potentials and unutilized opportunities that await exploitation both domestically and

internationally, as well as the problems and challenges that impede our progress. Indeed, it is the forces, which oppose our progress that generate the necessary pressure compelling us to strive harder. They may even prove to be the best indices of what will be achieved.

In envisioning a better future, we should not make the mistake of dwelling on what we lack rather than on what we possess, for India today possesses both the capacities and the opportunities to achieve a state of super-abundance. The effective strategy should focus on fully utilising the material, human, technological and social resources that we possess in the most rapid, efficient and organised manner.

The Challenges Ahead
India’s per capita income has doubled over the past 20 years. With population growth slowing now to about 1.6 per cent per annum, a growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) of around 9 per cent per annum would be sufficient to quadruple the per capita income by 2020. Opinions on achievable rates of economic growth have a tendency to swing along with the short-term economic performances. Two years ago, the global boom, the IT revolution and the all-round optimism led many to believe that in the coming decade India could mimic the 9-10 per cent growth rates that China achieved over a twenty year period.

6

Such optimism is out of fashion today. But there is ample evidence showing that if we can adopt a longer term perspective that is not blinded by immediate circumstances and fluctuating moods, higher rates of growth should be achievable for India in the coming years. This is not a prediction—it is a potential. The reality will depend on how effectively we seize the opportunity to do so.

From a historical perspective, global rates of development have been increasing for more than a century. The dramatic rise of Japan and the East Asian tigers, and most recently China, are illustrative of this point. An objective assessment reveals that all the major engines of economic growth that have accelerated growth up till now, will be present in greater abundance in the coming years than they had been in the past.

7

Assuming that India achieves this quadrupling of per capita income by 2020, it would attain a level of development far higher than where China is today, and on par with upper-middle income countries (UMI) such as Argentina, Chile, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico and South Africa.

8

Striving to achieve these reference levels and surpass them in some cases will present very significant challenges insofar as the determination and resourcefulness of the country is concerned.

9

Section II

10

Uncommon opportunities
Knowledge and Information Technology
An essential requirement for envisioning India’s future is to recognise that the equations which determine national development have changed in recent years, opening up greater possibilities than before. The same factors continue to be at work, but their relative contribution and importance is rapidly shifting along several dimensions as shown in the figure.

The Sectoral composition of the GDP changes with economic development. The predominance of agriculture in the least developed economies is reduced by the increasing importance of manufacturing, and subsequently, services, as they move up the ladder of development. As this occurs, the rates of economic growth tend to increase. This transition is now occurring globally and is reflected in the explosive growth of the services sector, especially in the fields of financial services, information and communication technology (ICT), insurance, education and health.

India’s services sector has already become the dominant contributor to GDP, accounting for 46 per cent of the total, but its share is still far below the UMI reference level of 60 per cent. The country very soon will get the opportunity to skip the long slow phase of industrialization that the most developed nations have passed through, and transit rapidly into a predominantly service economy by 2020, creating services that meet human needs, generate employment covering the large unorganized segment of the economy, raise incomes and increase purchasing power.

11

Even our notion of services may need to evolve further to recognise the importance of the emerging knowledge-intensive services.

Knowledge has replaced capital as the most important determinant of development. In a path breaking study in mid-1950s, Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow showed that seven eighth of the growth of US from 1900 to 1950 was accounted for by technical progress, while only one-eighth was driven by capital. India’s Green Revolution is a dramatic example of how the input of greater knowledge in the form of improved production technologies can rapidly increase the productivity of scarce land resources. India’s IT Revolution is a striking instance of how the importance of human capital has come to acquire a higher position than that of material plant and machinery. All efforts to project India’s future progress get at times blinded by the question of resources, more specifically, the financial resources needed for all plan activities. We start with the conviction that financial (capital) resources will not be the key factor that decides the course of our future progress. If we fail, it will be mainly for want of a vision of what is possible, knowledge of how to realise it, belief in ourselves, commitment to achieve, will for the effort or skill in implementation — and not for lack of finance.

The knowledge revolution is not just a short-term blip on the radar screen which peaked in 2000 with the boom in dot com companies. It is a real and profound opportunity for countries around the world to increase the pace and scope of the benefits of development. It marks a significant shift in the relative importance of different resources or factors of production in the development process.

12

This shift from material to knowledge-based resources opens up vast opportunities for the developing countries to accelerate the pace of development. India’s rate of economic growth can be substantially increased if the country becomes a superpower in knowledge and if the potentials of information and information technology are fully understood and exploited.

13

Knowledge Resources
There are hosts of non-material; knowledge-based human resources that we possess in abundance and can apply to achieve far greater results.

Technology
Knowledge in the form of information technology (IT) has opened up the opportunity for India to become the premier, low-cost provider of computer software and IT-enabled services to the industrialised world. It can not only provide high paying jobs and rising exports, but also transform the way we educate our youth—increasing the speed, quality and efficiency of learning manifold. Knowledge in the form of biotechnology offers not only a lucrative field for employment and economic growth, but a means for improving the health of our people and the productivity of our fields. In the form of agricultural technology, knowledge can increase crop yields from the present level, which is far below world averages, to levels two, three or four times higher. Pioneering Indian farmers have already achieved it for a variety of crops. What they have done individually, we can do as a nation. Finally, knowledge in the form of manufacturing technology will raise the competitiveness of the Indian manufactures to international standards of costs and quality.

14

Organisation
Technology is not the only knowledge resource now abundantly at our disposal. Organisation is nothing but the know-how for carrying out work most efficiently and expeditiously. India’s highly successful Green Revolution and White Revolution were the results of organisational innovations as much as technology. We have the opportunity to fashion new and better forms of organisation to carry out the tasks of education, health-delivery, governance, commerce, industry and social welfare.

Information
Physical and biological reactions require the presence of catalytic agents to set them in motion and speed completion. Human social processes depend on a catalytic agent too and that catalyst is information. Free movement of information releases society from fear of uncertainties. Information about prices and market potentials spurs an entrepreneur into commercial activity. Information about scientific and technological discovery prompts a scientist or an engineer to adopt new innovations and practical applications. Widely disseminated public information about proper health care and nutrition contributes more powerfully to the general health of the community than does a hospital or medical innovation. Information about government policies enables individuals and communities to fully exercise their rights and take advantage of public programmes. Information about distant places spurs tourism and trade. Information in all forms and all fields— administration, commerce, education, finance, health, science and technology—is the very source from which we shape our dreams, plans, decisions and actions. The more and better the quality of that information, the more enlightened, expansive, productive and effective will be our efforts at individual and social advancement. Today, the average Indian citizen has access to a wider range of timely and reliable Information than had the government leaders in the world’s most advanced nations a few decades ago. The fairly easy access to computers and the Internet has placed the world at our fingertips.

15

Spread

of

information

is

further

facilitated

by

the

advancement

of

telecommunications technology, rapid expansion of cellular telephone networks, as well as the recent legalisation of Internet telephony, that makes live voice communication possible at a fraction of the cost, both within the country and internationally.

Education
What is true of information is true of education as well. Dissemination of useful information can be said to constitute the so-called unorganised sector of public education. The formal educational system is its organised counterpart. Education is the process whereby society passes on the accumulated knowledge and experience of past generations to its youth in a systematic and abridged form, so that the next generation can start off where past generations have ended and move on from there. Today, through education we have access not only to the knowledge of our own direct ancestors but to the accumulated experience and wisdom of people the world over. With the development of modern media that brings sound and video images into every household, and with the advent of the Internet that enables us to reach out to sources of knowledge around the world, education offers both unprecedented richness of content and the capacity to deliver it. If only we could break free from the limitations of out-dated curriculum and out-moded delivery systems, we could utilise the opportunity to close the education gap that separates the world’s most prosperous communities from their poorer cousins.

Skills
Productive skills form another component of the precious human resource that we can and must fully utilise as leverage for national development. Skill is the ability to direct human energy efficiently to achieve desirable goals. A large reserve of unskilled people may be perceived as a problem, but a large population of skilled workers is a huge asset. It takes both knowledge and skill to train people and we

16

have these in abundance. Imparting employable skills to our entire workforce is not only highly desirable but highly achievable as well.

Historically, development has occurred under conditions in which access to critical resources was restricted to a relatively small portion of the population. The distinct characteristic of knowledge as a resource makes it possible, for the first time, to spread and share a resource among the entire population. The pace of India’s future progress will depend to a large extent on its ability to make available the latest and most useful knowledge to vast sections of the population.

17

Section III

18

Human Development
Today India is the second most populous country in the world, with about 1.04 billion people, home to a-sixth of humanity. Although it is difficult to accurately predict population growth rates 20 years to the future, this number will rise by another 300-350 million, in spite of continuous efforts to reduce fertility rates. This would raise the total population to about 1330 million by 2020. India is in the process of a demographic transition from high fertility, high mortality and stable population to low fertility, low mortality and stable population. This transition is a global phenomenon generated by the improved availability and access to modern health care that sharply reduced mortality rates and increased life expectancy. The Crude death rate has declined to one third of its level in 1941 and the expectation of life at birth has nearly doubled during this period. Falling mortality rates have been followed by a steady decline in birth rates, but this decline has not been as steep as the fall in death rate; even after reaching the replacement fertility rates, the population will continue to grow because of large numbers of young persons entering reproductive age.

At the national level, two alternate scenarios for achieving population stabilisation have been considered. In the optimistic scenario, which is based on achieving the demographic goals of the National Population Policy 2000, life expectancy is assumed to rise to 71 for males and 74 for females by 2020. Under the realistic scenario, life expectancy is assumed to reach 65 for males and 69 for females by 2020. Under either scenario India’s population would exceed 1.3 billion in the year 2020.

In both cases the sex ratio of population (females per 1000 males) would marginally increase from 932 in 2000 to 950 in 2020; reversing the historical trend of falling sex ratio is expected in the 21st Century.

19

The largest growth of population will be in the 15-64 year age group, which will expand by about 46 per cent by 2020 (i.e., annually by 1.9 per cent as against the population growth of much lower, at 1.4 per cent). This rise will accentuate the need for challenge of reducing fertility and increasing employment opportunities, so that the family size comes down and incomes rise.

The elderly population is also expected to rise sharply from 45 to 76 million, (i.e., by 2.6 per cent per annum) and their share in the total population would rise from 4.5 to 5.7 per cent. As a consequence of these age structural changes, the agedependency ratio (ratio of non-working age population to working age population) is expected to fall from 67 per cent in 2000 to 46 per cent in 2020, although the percentage of elderly people to population will increase.

1. Food security
The single most important implication of India’s rapid population growth during the second half of the twentieth century was the threat it posed to national food security. That threat reached dangerous proportions in the mid-1960s, leading to the launching of the Green Revolution, achievement of food self-sufficiency, and subsequently, a growing stock of surplus food grains by the mid-1970s. Happily, such a threat no longer exists for the country. Growth of food production has exceeded population growth for each of the past three decades.

Statistics present a confusing picture of India’s progress on food security. Both per capita food grain consumption and total calorific intake have declined slightly in

20

recent years among all levels of the population. At the same time, grain surpluses have reached peak levels and real per capita expenditure on food is rising among all income groups. The factors influencing this trend are numerous and complex, however, it can be primarily attributed to: 1. Reduction in calorie requirement due to a more sedentary life style among both the rural and urban population. Bicycle and bus travel, mechanised pumps and equipments, access to telephones and newspapers have reduced the physical work to a greater or lesser extent for most Indians.

2.

Diversification of the Indian diet to include a larger intake of fruits, vegetables, dairy products, sugar, oil and pulses, eggs, fish and meat products, thereby reducing the required intake of calories from cereals.

India’s population is still rapidly expanding. Living standards are rising and slated to rise faster than in the past. As they rise, both calorific intake and diversification of diet will increase significantly. Although a portion of this increase can and will be obtained from abroad, a fulfilling vision of India 2020 depicts this nation—with its conducive and varied climate, the largest irrigated area in the world and a vast farming population—as a major food exporter.

Both as a challenge and as an opportunity, India can and must do much more to modernise and diversify its agriculture to meet the increased domestic and international demand for a wide variety of food products. Continued growth of the agriculture sector is particularly important because it plays such a vital role in generating purchasing power among the rural population. Therefore, it is essential that agricultural development strategies for the 21st Century focus on generating both higher incomes and greater on-farm and off-farm employment opportunities.

India is now entering the fourth stage of agricultural transformation. The Green Revolution phase spread in the north-western and southern states from the mid1960s to the mid- 1980s. From the early 1980s, it spread rapidly in the central, and 21

to a lesser extent the eastern states. This, coupled with a further growth of productivity in the north-western and southern states, enabled India to achieve a 3.77 per cent annual growth rate in agricultural production during the 1980s. The overall growth slowed to 2.72 per cent in the 1990s, which was associated with a reduction in public investment in both agriculture and agricultural research, slower growth of fertilizer consumption and the area under high yielding varieties, and degradation of soils.

There is enormous scope for accelerating growth in agriculture, through improved soil nutrition and pest management, diversification into higher value-added crops, expansion and more efficient use of irrigation potential, rainwater harvesting, and infrastructure development for agro processing industries. India’s productivity on major crops ranks far below the world average. This low productivity contributes to low farm incomes and wages, lower on-farm employment generation, and relatively high food prices for all Indians. Average yields from tomato cultivation, for example, there are 76 per cent higher in Mexico and more than four times higher in

22

the USA, while average yields on seed cotton are more than four times higher in Mexico and three times higher in USA.

Tapping the full potential of Indian agriculture to meet the rising domestic demand and to take advantage of the liberalisation of international trade will require, first and foremost, the recognition of the vital role that agriculture can continue to play in national development. The other necessary conditions are: greater public investment in research; expansion and development of rural infrastructure including roads, storage capacity and organised markets; improved farmer education; effective involvement of the private sector to provide technology, investment and organisational expertise for commercialisation; and modification of land regulations to achieve greater production efficiency. A suitable land use pattern will also need to be implemented, based on the principle that each region would focus on crops best suited to their agro-climatic characteristics, soil types and water resources. Strong measures will also be needed to address the problem of land degradation that affects an estimated 45 per cent of total land area.

India’s objective for 2020 must not only be to produce the food its population requires but also to fully exploit the comparative advantages it possesses—agroclimatic variety, irrigation, scientific capabilities and low labour cost— to become a low cost, high profit producer for the world market.

23

The following figure depicts the projected food production under two scenarios,
together with estimates of food demand in 2020. Business-as-usual (BAU) assumes that growth of production continues at the same rates as during the 1990s. The Bestcase scenario (BCS) assumes that production grows at the higher rates achieved during the 1980s. Even under the BAU, India will be able to meet the projected demand in all five food categories. This indicates that more emphasis can be placed on diversifying production to other value added agricultural products.

India needs to sustain an agricultural growth rate of 4.0 to 4.5 per cent in order to reduce food insecurity and poverty, while increasing rural purchasing power. At this growth rate, agricultural development could more rapidly diversify into horticulture, fishery, dairying, animal husbandry and other areas. While food production should be able to comfortably meet the total domestic demand, there will still be sections of the population that require assistance in order to meet their nutritional requirements. In view of the high cost and inefficiency of the public food distribution system, reform should directly target the most

24

vulnerable sections, which can be more effectively accomplished through programmes such as food vouchers or food stamps.

2. Employment
Population, food security, education and remunerative employment opportunities are closely interconnected. Rising levels of education and rising living standards are powerful levers for reducing birth and mortality rates. As population growth slows to replacement levels over the next two decades, India’s greatest challenge will be to expand the opportunities for the growing labour force, to enrich their knowledge and skills through education, raise their living standards through gainful employment and make provisions for ensuring a good life for the aged.

India has met the challenge of producing sufficient food to feed everyone, but it has yet to meet the challenge of generating sufficient employment opportunities to ensure that all its people have the purchasing power to obtain the food they require. Gainful employment is one of the most essential conditions for food security and economic security. Conversely, food security is an essential requirement for raising the productivity of India’s workforce to international levels.

India’s labour force has reached 375 million approximately in 2002 and it will continue to expand over the next two decades. The actual rate of that expansion will depend on several factors including population growth, growth of the working age population, labour force participation rates, educational enrolment at higher levels and school drop-out rates. Projections based on these parameters indicate that India’s labour force will expand by 7 to 8.5 million per year during the first decade of this century, and will increase by a total of about 160-170 million by 2020, i.e., 2.0 percent per annum.

Total unemployment in India has been estimated to be about 35 million persons in 2002. This figure takes into account the significant level of underemployment and seasonal variations in the availability of work. It also reflects wide variations in the

25

rate of unemployment among different age groups and regions of the country. Approximately three-fourth of the unemployed are in rural areas and three-fifth among them are educated.

The recent trends towards shedding excess labour to improve competitiveness and increasing capital intensity have further aggravated the situation. A clear consensus is now emerging that major changes in economic policy and strategy will be needed to meet the country’s employment needs.

Future rates of unemployment will depend on a range of factors, including the growth rate of the labour force and changes in the structure of employment between different sectors, as well as the growth rate of the economy. Adopting the higher number takes us closer to understanding the full magnitude of the challenge the country faces for providing employment opportunities for all its people. India needs to generate on the order of 200 million additional employment opportunities over the next 20 years.

Achieving full employment will require a reorientation of national priorities, technology policy and government action. Until now, planning to achieve national goals has been largely done on a sector-wise basis by respective ministries assigned with the responsibility. These parallel lines of planning need to be integrated around a central vision and set of goals, of which full employment must be one. As we have incorporated an environmental analysis into all our planning, every plan initiative needs also to be re-evaluated to consider its impact on employment. In evaluating the importance of developing each sector, we must include an assessment of its potential contribution to employment. Such an assessment will have to be made for the unorganised sector, which currently contributes 92 per cent of the country’s employment and generates seven times greater labour intensity per unit of production, as compared to the organised sector. The public organised sector has been and will continue to shed jobs. Although the private organised sector will

26

contribute significantly to the growth of the economy, its contribution to the overall employment generation will be quite modest, since total employment in this sector currently represents only 2.5 per cent of all jobs.

Even if this sector grows by 30 per cent per annum, over five years it will contribute less than one per cent to the growth of the workforce

An assessment of the different sectors reveals a vast untapped employment potential in a wide range of fields for unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and professionally educated workers. The following table provides a list of specific sectors with the

largest gross employment potential per unit of output. The growth of food grain production may not lead to a significant growth in onfarm employment opportunities. However, there is substantial scope for creating

27

new jobs through watershed development programmes, expansion of the area under irrigated cultivation, raising crop yields which increases labour intensity, and diversification of cropping patterns into cash crops— especially vegetables and horticultural crops.

Together, these could generate upwards of 20 to 30 million new on-farm employment opportunities during the next decade.

The small-scale industries (SSI) sector accounts for 95 per cent of industrial units, 40 per cent of value addition, 35 per cent of exports, and 80 per cent of manufacturing employment. Registered SSI units provide nearly 18 million jobs in the country at this time. Among manufacturing sectors, the single largest employment potential is in textiles, which is slated to generate 7 million jobs over the next five years alone. More than 40 per cent of these jobs are in garment production units in the SSI sector. Tourism-related occupations, including hotels and restaurants, employ 10.8 per cent of workers globally, compared to only 5.6 per cent in India. Domestic tourism will rise rapidly as living standards increase. India’s domestic tourist sector is the fastest growing in the world, but with the lowest level of investment. The potential for international tourism too has not yet been exploited properly. Thailand, Malaysia, and Turkey attract three to four times as many. By one estimate, development of India’s tourism infrastructure such as roads, airports and medium priced hotels,

combined with modifications in air and hotel pricing and tax policies, could generate more than 20 million additional employment opportunities in tourist related businesses within a decade. IT is also a stimulant to the growth of home-based employment opportunities, especially suitable for women. IT services will be a powerful engine of job growth, but the term ‘Knowledge-based industries’ includes a much wider range of commercial opportunities. It encompasses all fields in which the application of

28

mind, judgment and skill, rather than the application of mechanized production technology is the core resource. Education, health services, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, insurance and financial services are among the leading industries in this category.

They are also among the fastest growing industries in the world. Added to these, there is enormous scope for other knowledge intensive activities such as clinical drug trials and many other types of scientific research.

3. Education
Literacy, the basis of all education, is as essential to survival and development in modern society as food is to survival and development of the human body. Literacy rates in India have arisen dramatically from 18 per cent in 1951 to 65 per cent in 2001, but these rates are still far from the UMI reference level of 95 per cent. Literacy must be considered the minimum right and requirement of every Indian citizen. Vast differences also remain among different sections of the population. Literacy among males is nearly 50 per cent higher than females, and it is about 50 per cent higher in urban areas as compared to the rural areas. Literacy rates range from as high as 96 per cent in some districts of Kerala to below 30 per cent in some parts of Madhya Pradesh. Rates are also significantly lower among scheduled castes and tribes than among other communities. Literacy is an indispensable minimum condition for development, but it is not sufficient. In this increasingly complex and technologically sophisticated world, ten years of school education must also be considered as an essential prerequisite for citizens to adapt and succeed economically, avail of the social opportunities and develop their individual potentials. Education is the primary and most effective means so far evolved for transmitting practically useful knowledge from one generation to another. Achieving 100 per cent enrolment of all children in the 6 to 14 year age group is an ambitious but achievable goal for 2020. This must be coupled with efforts to

29

increase the quality and relevance of school curriculum to equip students not only with academic knowledge but also with the values and practical knowledge needed for success in life.

Table 4 depicts a business-as usual scenario for primary and secondary education in 2020, based on recent trends as well as an alternative scenario designed to radically enhance the quantity and quality of school education in the country.

Vision of India in 2020 is predicated on the belief that human resources are the most important determinants of overall development. As India’s IT revolution has been fuelled by the availability of a very large reservoir of well-trained engineers, its future development in many different spheres will depend on commensurate development of sufficient and surplus capabilities.

Full development of India’s enormous human potential will require a shift in national priorities, to commit a greater portion of the country’s financial resources to the education sector.

India currently invests 3.2 - 4.4 per cent of GNP on education. This compares unfavourably with the UMI reference level of 4.9 per cent, especially with countries such as South Africa, which invests 7.9 per cent of GNP on education. A near 30

doubling of investments in education is the soundest policy for quadrupling the country’s GDP per capita.

4.

Health for All

The health of a nation is difficult to define in terms of a single set of measures. At best, we can assess the health of the population by taking into account indicators like infant mortality and maternal mortality rates, life expectancy and nutrition, along with the incidence of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

According to these measures, the health of the Indian population has improved dramatically over the past fifty years. Life expectancy has risen from 33 years to 64 years. The infant mortality rate (IMR) has fallen from 148 to 71 per 1000. The crude birth rate (CBR) has declined from 41 to 25 and the crude death rate (CDR) has fallen from 25 to under 9. The couple protection rate (CPR) and total fertility rate (TFR) have also improved substantially.

Despite these achievements, wide disparities persist between different income groups, between rural and urban communities, and between different states and even districts within states. The infant mortality rate among the poorest quintet of the population is 2.5 times higher than that among the richest. Maternal mortality remains very high. More than one lakh women die each year due to pregnancyrelated complications.

Like population growth and economic growth, the health of a nation is a product of many factors and forces that combine and interact with each other. Economic growth, per capita income, employment, levels of literacy and education—especially among females—age of marriage, birth rates, availability of information regarding health care and nutrition, access to safe drinking water, public and private health care infrastructure, access to preventive health care and medical care, health

31

insurance, public hygiene, road safety, and environmental pollution are among the factors that contribute directly to the health of the nation.

There will be a massive increase in population in the 15-64 age group. Reproductive and Child Health care programmes must meet the needs of this rapidly growing clientele. The population in this age group will be more literate and have greater access to information. They will have greater awareness and expectations about access to quality services for maternal and child health, contraceptive care, management of gynecological problems, etc. A major focus of vision 2020 must be on improving access to health services to meet the health care needs of women and children.

India’s significant achievements in the field of health have been made possible by the establishment of a huge rural health infrastructure, along with the formation of a massive health care manpower consisting of over five lakh trained doctors working under plural systems of medicine, and a vast frontline of over seven lakh nurses and other health care workers; 25,000 primary and community health care centers; and 1.6 lakh sub-centers, complemented by 22,000 dispensaries and 2,800 hospitals practicing Indian systems of medicine and homeopathy. This

infrastructure remains under-equipped, under-manned and under-financed to cope with the challenge of eradicating major threats to human life.

The inadequacy of the current health care system is starkly illustrated by the fact that only c35 per cent of the population have access to essential drugs, while the UMI reference level is above 82 per cent. Infant immunization against measles and DPT for children under 12 years is only 60 per cent and 78 per cent compared to the UMI level of over 90 per cent for both diseases.

32

As a larger proportion of the population reaches middle class standards of living, an increasing number of people will turn to private health care providers. This development is welcome, because it will permit the public health care system to concentrate more resources on meeting the needs of the poorer sections. But at the same time, the level of public expenditure on health care needs to rise about fourfold from the current level of 0.8 per cent of GDP to reach the UMI reference level of 3.4 per cent. Rapid growth of the private health care system, however, requires the formulation of competence and quality standards to check and balance the increasing emphasis on health care as a business.

Development plans for India’s health care systems need to place greater emphasis on public health education and prevention. The wide dissemination of health and nutrition related information through traditional channels should be supplemented by an ambitious and persistent programme of public health education through the print, television, radio and electronic media.

Health insurance can play an invaluable role in improving the overall health care system. The insurable population in India has been assessed at 250 million and this number will increase rapidly in the coming two decades. This should be supplemented by innovative insurance products and programmes by panchayats with reinsurance backup by companies and government to extend coverage to much larger sections of the population.

33

The life expectancy of the Indian population is expected to reach above 65 years in 2020, which compares favourable with the UMI reference level of 69 years. Mortality rates for infants is expected to decline to about 20 per 1000 in 2020, which compares favourable with the UMI reference level of 22.5.

India’s Vision of 2020 must be one in which all levels and sections of the population and all parts of the country march forward together into a more secure and prosperous future.
34

Section IV

35

Infrastructure
1. Urban infrastructure
Disparities between the social and physical infrastructure of the urban and rural areas are common to all countries. In India they are a continuing source of concern and will become further aggravated unless innovative strategies are evolved to accelerate the development of rural infrastructure. A Vision of India 2020 must assess and try to anticipate the complexion of the future urban-rural divide.

Recent evidence confirms that the rate of growth of urban centres in the country is declining more rapidly than was previously anticipated, though the proportion of people living in urban areas continues to rise. According to the 2001 Census, 27.8 per cent of the Indian population resides in cities, compared with 25.5 per cent in 1990. The urban population is expected to rise to around 40 per cent by 2020. As India’s cities continue to swell, the challenge of improving the urban infrastructure will be magnified.

Disparities in infrastructure between large and small urban areas have always been prevalent, but these disparities can be expected to increase significantly in future years. The stricter fiscal disciplines imposed by government and credit rating agencies will make it increasingly difficult for all but the largest urban centers to attract finance for infrastructural development. The large cities may be expected to experience modest to high rates of growth and to absorb a large part of the incremental migration in their peripheries and neighbouring towns. Being linked to the national and global economy, these large areas are likely to attract investment from the corporate sector and experience a stable demographic growth, while small and medium towns, particularly in backward Regions, attract little industrial and infrastructural investment and report low and unstable Demographic growth. This almost exclusive focus on improving infrastructure and basic amenities in the large cities is misplaced. Still greater inequality may be expected in the level of basic

36

services across urban centers of different sizes by the year 2020, unless concerted initiative is taken to reverse the trend.

The face of urban poverty in 2020 is unlikely to be very different from what it is today, given that the largest indicator of poverty in cities is not so much lack of income, as lack of decent housing and civic amenities. These call for a change in a number of policies, especially those relating to land regulation, zoning, and development. The activities relating to provision of health care, water supply and sanitation, education and vocational training need to be carried out with higher levels of efficiency, to help the urban poor upgrade themselves.

Urban development represents one of the great challenges for India over the next two decades. Given the socio-political reality in India, it will be difficult for the private sector to bring about changes in the pattern of investment in infrastructure without the state becoming an active partner, bringing about the required legislative and administrative changes. A satisfying outcome will depend on the formulation of effective public policy to accelerate all-round development of smaller urban centers and to refashion the role of the state as an effective facilitator to compensate for the deficiencies of market mechanisms in the delivery of public goods. Anti-poverty programmes should primarily be directed towards creation of a community-based infrastructure.

2. Rural infrastructure
Along with the development of urban infrastructure, simultaneous efforts are also needed for strengthening rural infrastructure. Specific aspects of the rural infrastructure are discussed elsewhere in this report under the headings of education, health care, transport, telecom, power and Water. Vision is to create a rural infrastructure which connects every village with paved roads and telecommunication facilities, provides electricity and an assured supply of safe drinking water to all rural households, offers access to quality primary and secondary education to all children and medical services to all citizens.

37

The rural electrification programme, launched in 1951, has succeeded in bringing electricity to more than 5 lakh villages. However, 80,000 villages are yet to get electricity connections. Out of these, 18,000 are in remote areas where electrification through the conventional electricity grid may not be feasible. To achieve 100 per cent rural electrification, we must rely on non-conventional sources of energy, especially for the remote villages. Rural livings offer several considerable advantages over their urban counterparts: However, any successful alternative approach must address the crucial issues of infrastructure and civic amenities that make urban areas so attractive.

One promising alternative is to link clusters of ten villages together by a high speed circular highway, thereby bringing 100,000 or more people into a circular community that can be crossed within 30 minutes travel time, and promoting a balanced and well spread out development of urban services along the periphery of the ring road. This arrangement would vastly reduce the length and cost of constructing good roads between all the villages, and enable establishment of quality services at any point around the ring to be accessible to all members of the linked community. Telecom links and sanitation systems would naturally develop around the ring at far lower cost, and better quality schools and hospitals could develop to

38

support the larger community. Industrial parks could be established to utilise the large workforce available within the ring. These and similar models need to be tried and modified, on a priority basis, otherwise it requires little stretch of imagination To anticipate the increasing congestion and immobility of large urban areas that is bound to occur in the near future.

3. Telecom
Telecom acts as a stimulus for the development process. Over the past decade, India’s achievement in this sector has been quite impressive. In terms of the overall size of main telephone lines in operation, the country rose from its 14th rank in the world in 1995 to 7th in 2001.

India has adopted a gradual approach towards telecom sector reforms, through selective privatisation and managed competition in different market segments. Since the early 1990s, it has introduced private competition in value-added services, and national and international long distance telephony. Two state-owned public sector incumbents with a large existing subscriber base still dominate the fixed line service, in which they own about 35 million direct exchange lines (DEL). The opening up of the cellular market has unleashed real dynamism in the marketplace. Cellular mobile telephone subscribers in India increased from 77 thousand in 1995 to 7.3 million by June 2002, rising from a 0.6 per cent of the total subscribers to 17 per cent. This level is still relatively low compared with the average level of about 25 per cent achieved by low-income countries, 42 per cent by middle-income countries, and upwards of 50 per cent by upper middle income and high-income countries. The mobile explosion is helping in improving telecom penetration, bringing along the concomitant economic benefits of enhanced telecom accessibility, while at the same time promoting a better entrepreneurial culture, generating additional employment, and fostering a shift in the investment burden from the state to the private sector and the consumers.

39

Looking forward from now to 2020, the rapid expansion of India’s fixed line network is likely to continue. As the fixed line market matures, more and more users will cross over to mobile communications as well, spurring a mobile revolution in India. Mobile telecommunications and the Internet are going to set the contours of further technological progress over the next two decades. The recent convergence of voice and data transmission, global satellite systems, mobile handsets and calling cards have overcome the technological barriers of distance, topography and remoteness. By 2020, third generation (3G) mobile devices with access to mobile data and voice should be within the reach of wider sections of the Indian population. India in 2020 is likely to see competition among big firms offering innovative valueadded services to capture market share. The regulatory environment should therefore foster maximum flexibility and freedom to encourage innovation and expansion, consistent with this process of evolution.

4. Transport
Vision of India 2020 is of a country with a well-developed network of roads and railways and adequate capacity to handle the growth in demand for transport. The volume of road traffic will multiply about five-fold, carried over a 70,000 km network of National Highways, including 5,000 to 10,000 km of expressways, linking the golden quadrangle of Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai- Kolkata-Delhi as well as northern, southern, eastern and western portions of the country, mostly with four or more lanes. State Highways with at least two-way lanes will link most districts. Rural roads will provide access to the furthest outlying villages.

Technological progress will generate vehicles that are pollution free and fuelefficient. An efficient public transport system will lead to a reduction in the population of two-wheelers in major urban areas.

40

The railways will have to be expanded to handle a three-fold increase in traffic. Improved customer service, comfort and safety, a reduction in freight costs and tariffs, elimination (or at least reduction) of the uneconomic services, non-paying projects and subsidies will be necessary for this. India will need airports of international standards for passenger and cargo handling and modern handling systems at major ports to reduce delays in berthing. Institutional arrangements will need to be in place with adequate funds for proper maintenance, especially of roads. Urban transport systems will be needed in all cities with a population of a million plus.

41

Section V

42

Energy & environment
Economic growth the world over is driven by energy, whether in the form of finite resources such as coal, oil and gas or in renewable forms such as hydroelectric, wind, solar and biomass, or its converted form, electricity. This energy generation and consumption powers the nation’s industries, vehicles, homes and offices. It also has significant impact on the quality of the country’s air, water, land and forest resources. For future growth to be both rapid and sustainable, it needs to be as resource-efficient and environmentally benign as possible.

1. Power
India’s installed capacity for power generation has tripled over the last 20 years and now exceeds 101,000 MW. However, the total demand is expected to increase by another 3.5 times in the next two decades, even under a best-case scenario that envisions intensified efforts to modernise power plants, improve transmission and distribution efficiency, and adopt more efficient generation technologies. Figure 2 depicts power consumption by various sectors in 1997 compared to a business asusual (BAU) and an alternative scenario, which we will consider as the best-case scenario (BCS) for 2020.

43

2. Fuel Demand
The overall growth in demand for all forms of fuel will mirror the growth in the power sector. Even under the alternative scenario, total coal demand will nearly double, and both oil and gas demand will triple, as shown in Table 7. Expanding domestic production capacity will require substantial investments, while increasing dependence on imported forms of energy will increase vulnerability to fluctuations in global energy prices. The surging demand will also place an increased burden on the physical and social environments. An enhanced exploration by the public and private sectors, adoption of best practices and environment-friendly technologies, more efficient use of energy, promotion of private sector investment, and greater efforts to protect the environment will be required to cope effectively with the nation’s growing energy needs.

44

3. Air Quality
Transport, manufacturing, the power sector, commercial and residential energy use, all Contribute to problems of air quality. Motor vehicles contribute to all forms of air pollution. Residential burning of unprocessed biomass fuel is the single largest source of carbon monoxide and suspended particulate matter. Power generation contributes most of the nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide.

The escalating demand for power, rapid proliferation of motor vehicles, expansion of Industries and rising living standards will all combine to have significant impact on the quality of air, especially in urban areas, as depicted in Figure 6. Appropriate strategies and actions are required to address the various forms of pollution in each of these sectors. Stricter enforcement of environmental regulations, rapid adoption of pollution-free and more efficient technologies, and higher standards for fuel quality are needed to reduce the environmental costs of growth.

45

4. Water Management
India possesses 16 per cent of the world’s population but just 4 per cent of its water resources. Overall, at the national level, current water resources are more than sufficient to meet the demand, but future studies project that the supply situation could become difficult over the next half century. However, water shortage has already become a serious and recurring source of concern for a large number of people in different parts of the country and for a number of the major metropolitan areas. Only 70 per cent of the people in urban areas have access to basic sanitation services. A large number of rural habitations remain without any identified source of safe drinking water. Groundwater tables are receding, rivers are silting up, and leaching of chemical fertilizers is polluting drinking water supplies.

The rising consumption will further aggravate water scarcity as population, food production, industrialisation and living standards continue to rise over the next two decades. The total water consumption in India is expected to rise by 20-40 per cent over the next 20 years. Figure 7 shows the current and projected consumption of water for different categories of use.

46

To meet the rising demand for water in 2020, it is essential to develop potential storage capacities and strengthen existing storage facilities. Tremendous wastage occurs as a result of evapostranspiration, distribution losses, seepage through unlined channels and excess application. Canal-irrigation efficiency in India is estimated at around 35 to 40 per cent, which is below international standards. Government policies need to be revised to provide incentives for efficient use of water, including appropriate water pricing and more effective institutional mechanisms for water management. India is not poor in water resources. What it lacks is the ability to efficiently capture and effectively utilise the available resources for the maximum benefit. Enormous potential exists for increasing the productivity of water in agriculture by raising crop productivity, combined with better water management. Deep soil chiseling prior to planting can dramatically improve water retention by the soil, while reducing run-off and flooding. Crops grown in these conditions require less irrigation and generate much higher yields.

Both urban and rural water resources can be substantially enhanced by widespread adoption of rainwater harvesting techniques. These techniques need to be applied throughout the country, in both rural and urban areas, to capture run-off water during the monsoon season and channel it into ponds, tanks and bore wells in order to recharge both surface water and underground aquifers.

47

Section VI

48

Globalisation
India’s progress over the next 20 years will be intimately linked to events within the region as well as around the world. Both opportunities and challenges will arise as the result of transformations in the regional and global political and security environments. World trade under WTO will determine access to markets and international competitiveness, particularly after the ascension of China. The economic growth rates of other regions will influence demand for exports and foreign capital flows. Some other developments that will influence India’s progress in the coming two decades are: Pressure on energy prices as a result of global economic growth Continued spread of the information revolution Technological innovations, such as those with regard to disease prevention and treatment.

Options for India
1. Trade in goods
Liberalisation of trade will open up new opportunities for export of goods, while increasing pressures on India’s domestic industry to cope with competition from imports, especially from China. The global market for textiles and clothing will expand dramatically and the phasing out of quantitative restrictions will increase trade in these categories. But India’s ability to export will depend on its capacity to keep pace with the rising international standards of price, quality, productivity, and service. Global trade in agricultural products will also grow rapidly, though it is not yet clear to what extent the OECD countries will remove the barriers and subsidies that hinder exports to these markets. However, India’s ability to become a major exporter of agricultural products will depend most on its ability to improve crop quality and productivity, while lowering costs to international levels. Increasing overcapacity in basic manufacturing industries, coupled with mechanisation of

49

processes, which eliminates the advantage of low cost labour, will limit future opportunities and benefits for export of manufactured commodity goods such as cars, TVs, and computers. Future opportunities for manufactured exports will be focused on the high end of the technology chain, computerised, customised manufacturing processes and sophisticated engineering and capital goods, areas in which India has not yet strongly positioned itself internationally.

2. Trade in services
The World Bank estimates that India will possess the fourth largest economy in the world by 2020. The emerging global scenario will open up greater opportunities for countries with a surplus of well-educated, highly skilled labour that can provide an attractive commercial environment for the outsourcing of manufacturing and service businesses from high and even middle income countries. India’s recent boom in outsourcing of IT services, further facilitated by declining costs of international communication and transportation, only points to the wide range of economic opportunities existing in the manufacturing and service businesses. At the same time, the pressure for export of highly educated and highly skilled individuals will also increase, so that a significant migration of scientific, engineering and medical talent is likely to continue. Steps however need to be taken to ensure that such migration is not detrimental to the country’s development.

Export of services is a field in which India can excel. Computerization, coupled with lowcost global telecommunications is generating rapid growth of trade in service businesses, such as software and IT enabled services. This trend will further accelerate, opening up vast opportunities for countries with the capacity to deliver low-cost, high-quality services. India already commands an impressive 18.5 per cent share in the global market for customised software and the Indian software industry is the fastest growing in the world. A NASSCOM-McKinsey report estimated that by 2008, the global market for IT enabled services alone will exceed $1,000 billion, and that India’s export of IT services will exceed $50 billion, which is double the country’s total export of goods and services in 2000. 50

3. Capital Flows and FDI
The enlargement of the international capital market will open up increasing opportunities for India to attract foreign direct and institutional investment. Foreign direct investment (FDI) expanded globally from $159 billion in 1991 to $1,270 billion in 2000, but with an increasing proportion of these flows moving between developed nations. During this period, FDI flows to India increased six-fold to $2.3 billion, which represents less than 0.2 per cent of global FDI. Multinational investments in India should be encouraged, especially in technology-intensive sectors where they can supplement and strengthen India’s technological capabilities.

4. Technology
India’s technology policy needs to be reformulated in the light of the emerging international economic environment, to capitalise on the accelerated global development and diffusion of technologies, and keep pace with more demanding international standards for cost, quality and productivity. India will need to be far more aggressive in acquiring and applying advanced technologies in a wide range of fields, including agriculture, information technology, energy, health and education. At the same time, India can also aspire to become an important contributor to the expansion of global frontiers of technology by building upon and leveraging its already significant achievements in fields such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, software, space and energy. It can also revive, simultaneously; it's traditional knowledge and technologies through formal R&D efforts.

51

Peace and security
India is in the midst of a great experiment. It is in the process of transforming a weak agrarian economy into a modern multi-dimensional economic enterprise and a traditional stratified society into an egalitarian society, while simultaneously fashioning and transforming itself into a modern democracy through consultative politics. It is inevitable that the rapid social, economic, technological and political development of one billion people should cause turbulence. Yet it is essential that this turbulence be managed and confined within limits that preserve the social fabric and cultural values and permit the nation’s transformation to continue.

The challenges to peace are numerous and they come from all directions—from outside our border and within, as well as from within our minds. Our capacity to preserve and build lasting peace for all Indians will depend on the strength of our military to defend our borders and the potential of our economy to generate increasing employment and income opportunities for all citizens. Our education system will need to inculcate knowledge and skills in our youth. Our legal and judicial system will be required to safeguard the rights of individuals and communities. Our scientists and engineers will have to develop and harness technologies for the benefit of the people. Most of all, the wisdom and determination of our political leaders to remove injustices and to direct the collective energies of the nation for greater achievement in every field of endeavour will go a long way towards maintaining peace and harmony in the country.

52

53

Governance
India’s economic and technological transition is accompanied by a multifaceted political transformation which may well be slower, less clearly defined and less visible, but will nonetheless have profound impact on the functioning of the government 20 years from now. The main consequences of that transformation are likely to include:

1. Decentralisation and People’s Participation
Devolution of power to local bodies will continue at an accelerated rate. Pressure from the grassroots will increasingly supplant governance from the top down.

Local communities will come to depend less on state and central government action and more on their own initiative and organisational capacity.

Financial devolution will give local bodies more authority to levy taxes and greater control over the use of local natural resources. It will also make them increasingly responsible for financing local infrastructure.

Direct democracy through gramsabhas, as opposed to representative democracy, will become more prevalent at the local level. People at the local level will be more directly involved in setting priorities for distribution of resources and managing local projects.

A better-educated and better-informed electorate will be increasingly demanding of its rights and increasingly critical of non-performing governments and their individual members.

54

2. Efficiency, Transparency and Accountability
Government agencies of all types at all levels will be more responsive and accountable to the public as customers.

Mechanisms will be evolved to increase transparency and reduce corruption.

E-government will improve responsiveness and reduce corruption in some areas. Computerisation of information systems coupled with downsizing, higher recruitment standards and stricter discipline will increase

administrative efficiency. The educational, technical and professional qualifications of political leaders will rise.

The problems of governance 20 years from now will still include those issues which occupy our attention today – transparency, corruption, non-responsiveness, favoritism, bureaucracy, inefficiency, lack of accountability, ineffectiveness of implementation, etc. But rising expectations, increasing levels of education, greater access to information and greater prosperity will be working to mitigate these factors to a large extent.

Worldwide E-governance is such a recent development, that it is difficult to assess its potential impact 20 years hence. However, the plans and projects already being implemented by various state governments within the country suggest that it has the potential, if fully harnessed and rightly utilised, to radically improve the speed, convenience, quality and transparency of public administrative services, while enhancing the ability of individual citizens to express and exercise their democratic rights.

The essence of good governance is the capacity to envision the opportunities that lead to a better future, to build a broad consensus in support of that vision, to take

55

the bold decisions necessary to realise the vision, and to exercise the determination and perseverance required for overcoming obstacles and resistances that arise along the way.

56

Conclusion
India 2020 will be bustling with energy, entrepreneurship and innovation. The country’s 1.35 billion people will be better fed, dressed and housed, taller and healthier, more educated and longer living than any generation in the country’s long history. Illiteracy and all major contagious diseases will have disappeared. School enrolment from age 6 to 14 will near 100 per cent and drop out rates will fall to less than one in twenty.

A second productivity revolution in Indian agriculture, coupled with diversification to commercial crops, agri-business, processing industries, agro-exports and massive efforts towards afforestation and wasteland development will generate abundant farm and non-farm employment opportunities for the rural workforce. These in turn will stimulate demand for consumer goods and services, giving a fillip to the urban economy and the informal sector as well as rapid expansion of the services sector.

India’s claim to the title Silicon Valley of Asia will be followed by the diversification from IT to biotechnology, medical sciences and other emerging fields of technology, widening the field of India’s international competitiveness and generating a large number of employment opportunities for the educated youth. These developments, driven by the firm commitment of the government and a quantum expansion of vocational training programmes, will ensure jobs for all by 2020.

Inequalities between different age groups, the sexes, income groups, communities and regions will come down dramatically. The old disparities between the very rich and the poor will not have disappeared, but the nature of poverty in 2020 will not be nearly as harsh and oppressive as it was at the turn of the millennium. Regional disparities will remain visible, though all regions will have advanced significantly in two decades. India’s achievements have been fuelled by the realization that the progress of the whole ultimately depends on the progress of its weakest links; India 2020 must be one

57

in which all levels and sections of the population and all parts of the country march forward together towards a more secure and prosperous future.

The increasingly congested urban traffic will be motorised as never before. Two wheelers will be ubiquitous and cars will be considered essential for most middle class families. City roads and rural highways will improve substantially in number, capacity and quality, but a four-fold multiplication in the number of vehicles will tax the urban infrastructure to the limit. Urban congestion will accelerate the movement of business, middle class families and even government offices into new self-contained suburban centres. Cell phones, computers and the Internet will permeate every aspect of life and every corner of the country. Computerisation of education will dramatically improve the quality of instruction and the pace of learning, so that many students will complete the first twelve years of school curriculum in as little as eight. Computerised distance education will catch on in a big way and enable tens of thousands more students to opt for affordable higher education. Computerisation in government will streamline procedures and response times to a degree unimaginable now. Perceptive observers will find that India is leapfrogging directly into a predominantly service economy.

Environmental issues will remain a serious concern. Urban air pollution will come under control by strict enforcement of motor vehicle emission standards and widespread use of ethanolblended motor fuels, but water shortages in major metropolitan areas will continue despite a national programme to popularise water harvesting techniques in both urban and rural areas. A massive afforestation programme will reverse the depletion of forest areas, raise the nation’s Green cover to 33 per cent of area, generate millions of rural employment opportunities, and provide abundant renewable energy from biomass power production.

India will be much more integrated with the global economy and will be a major player in terms of trade, technology and investment.

58

Rising levels of education, employment and income will help stabilise India’s internal security and social environment. A united and prosperous India will be far less vulnerable to external security threats.

A more prosperous India in 2020 will be characterised by a better-educated electorate and more transparent, accountable, efficient and decentralised government.